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 Ingham, Qld, 4850
S 18° 39.044 E 146° 09.305
55K E 410886 N 7937607
A heritage listed seventy-seven year old Post Shop in a small tropical town.
Waymark Code: WMFP5K
Location: Queensland, Australia
Date Posted: 11/11/2012
Views: 10
The heritage listed Ingham Post Shop is located at 15 Lannercost Street which is part of the Ingham portion of the Bruce Highway, and provides a large range of services, with post office boxes available as well as passport business. It is open Monday to Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, closed Saturday and Sunday.
On 30 August 2012, just seven days before my visit, The Hon Tony Burke MP, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, announced the inclusion of 15 post offices on the Commonwealth Heritage List. Ingham Post Office was one of those listed, as 'Ingham Post Office, 15 Lannercost St, Ingham, QLD, Australia', Place ID number 106200, Place File No 4/05/256/0003. The following detail is taken from the Australian Heritage Database . | |
Historically, Ingham Post Office was constructed in 1935 to a design by the Commonwealth Department of the Interior under H Mackennal, and is one of many small to medium sized single storey post offices designed and built throughout Queensland during the interwar period to service its towns and regional centres. It was subsequently expanded in the 1950s when the area’s sugar cane industry underwent an expansionist phase, when the open mail sorting room and post office box wall were added. The post office, with the original 1935 component still discernible and largely intact externally, is also a component of the civic and commercial precinct of Ingham, sharing this with the nearby Hinchinbrook Shire Chambers and Library; these aspects of the building enhance the historical value (criterion a).
Typologically, Ingham Post Office is an example of a third generation retail post office which demonstrate an emergent retail function in postal operations, separation of the telephone exchange area and increased requirements for independently accessed larger post office box lobby areas with frontally positioned mail sorting room and/or a rear loading yard. These aspects are evident in the original design to the extent it comprised a symmetrically composed twin porch arrangement, with a central breakfront postal hall to Lannercost Street. Subsequent extensions to the building, including the later east wing, altered the original plan and form and therefore impacted on this aspect of the original typology, albeit they have generally reinforced the primacy of the private box function and enlarged mailroom facility. Stylistically, the building’s pedimented gable front is conservative, particularly by Government architecture standards of the time, but arguably of interest as one of the last generally Colonial-Revival post offices in Australia (albeit altered). The detail is heavy but perhaps intentionally so to give added municipal presence on a wayside frontage that is also the main thoroughfare through town (criterion d).
Aesthetically, the post office has some aesthetic qualities in the immediate context, deriving from the prominent and original pedimented gabled frontage to Lannercost Street, and enhanced by the Colonial-flavoured verandahs and porch entries(criterion e). | |
State/Territory: QLD
Post Boxes: Yes
Historical Significance: Yes
Current use: Yes
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Visit Instructions:
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